Summer Games Done Quick

Watch your childhood memories get destroyed

Seeing how our issue this term is nearing its final production steps, there has been a lot of discussion on stereotypes within our team. And what better stereotypes are there than the ones revolving around gaming and gamers? Well, let me destroy the misconception of sweaty and unsocial gamers in the next few minutes as they destroy your favourite games in the meantime!

Gotta go fast!

First
of all, you might ask what I’m talking about. The “Games Done
Quick“ event takes place twice a year in America and is
livestreamed for free on a platform called „twitch.tv“. Gamers
from around the world met up this past week in Bloomington,
Minnesota, to showcase their skills in some of the most classic video
games out there but also a bunch of new releases. I already hear you
say “Pff, video games don’t take any skill. It’s just pressing a
bunch of buttons.“. I’ll have to pull a Trump on this one and tell
you you’re wrong.
Remember that time you got stuck on that one dungeon in “The Legend
of Zelda“ as a child and you just couldn’t figure out the solution?
How about just entering a series of button presses in the exact right
amount of time to launch yourself over the entire thing, maneuver
skilfully to the desired spot on the map in the dark – because
obviously the developers had not intended for you to take that route
– and just slay the boss of the level without having any of the
tools available you’d have access to if you took the normal way
around. This is what’s called a “speedrun“ in the community: the
abuse of ingame mechanics to beat a game within a fraction of the
time needed, compared to playing normally. Months of preparation go
into every single one of these runs that have been featured during
this past week. Even more impressing that the players don’t only show
off incredible tricks but also entertain the audience at the same
time and try to explain what they’re doing. So if you were worried
you wouldn’t understand what’s even happening on your screen, fear
not!

The good cause: Médecins Sans Frontières

There’s
a massive production team behind these events every year. Most of
them coming straight from the community themselves. And – to my
knowledge – all of them organising this on a voluntary basis,
though there are known sponsors and brands to help out. During the
stream, the audience can donate money which entirely goes to a good
cause. The winter production forwards it to cancer research and the
summer production to “Doctors Without Borders/Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF)“; a
non- profitable international medical
humanitarian organization
created by doctors
and
journalists
in
France
in
1971. MSF gives emergency
aid
to people affected by wars,
epidemics,
famine,
natural
disasters and
man-made
disasters,
or areas where there is no health care available. It provides this
help to all people, regardless of their race, religion
or
political
beliefs.
(definition
taken from wikipedia.org). Noteworthy
as well that MSF have won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. They act on
a set of 5 fundamental medical rules: Impartiality, Independence,
Neutrality, Bearing witness, as well as being transparent and
accountable. An overall great cause to donate money for, right?
Something a few hundred thousand other people have thought, too, and
they’ve raised a whooping
$3,003,839.
So
not only have there been new time records set for some of these
memorable games, but also a new record in the charity’s history that
started in 2011.

With all that being said, I can only implore you to go check out this great exhibition if you’re interested in video games. There’s over 100 games being showcased so there should be something available for all tastes and ages. The livestream itself has ended yesterday, but all the runs have been recorded and uploaded to the „Awesome Games Done Quick“ YouTube channel. For legal reasons, I can’t link you directly. Go check it out and enjoy! Same goes for Doctors without Borders. Their homepage is incredibly informative. Go check that out, too!

Author: Tobias Lorenz

Disclaimer:
Neither the author nor anyone on the eMAG team is involved in
“Awesome Games Done Quick“. This is the author’s own opinion and
he has not been paid to promote the event.